Villadom Times Weekly Newpaper Online-October 28, 2009 Issue

Mahwah October 28, 2009 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 9 Bus shelter planned at Miller Road intersection by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Council has authorized the township engineer to take whatever actions are necessary to secure the approvals of Bergen County and New Jersey Transit officials and to obtain the funding needed to locate a bus shelter at the northwest corner of Miller Road at the intersection with Franklin Turnpike. The council’s action was based on a report by Michael Kelly, a representative of the township’s engineering firm of Bowell McClave. Kelly concurred with a previous report by Lieutenant Robert Sinnaeve, the Mahwah Police Department’s traffic safety officer, that the most appropriate location for a bus stop and shelter would be at the northwest corner of the Franklin Turnpike and Miller Road intersection adjacent to the Gulf station. A review of the topographic survey of this intersection indicates there is sufficient area within the township’s right-of-way to install a bus shelter either in the planting area at this location or in the paved area, Kelly said. He further advised that the existing landscaping in the township’s right-of-way could be removed and he recommended that curbing be installed to provide protection for those people who use the bus shelter. According to Kelly, the recommended location of the bus shelter would not cause the loss of any parking spaces, and a handicapped parking space could be located there to provide easy access to a bus. He also told the council the bus shelter would not interfere with the operation of the Gulf station, and no additional easements would be required. According to Boswell Engineering, now that a resolution has been passed requesting the installation of the bus shelter, NJ Transit will send a field representative to prepare a sketch of the location and an agreement between the township and NJ Transit must be signed. NJ Transit will then order the bus shelter and install it at no cost to the township. Once the shelter is installed, it becomes the property of the township and the township will be required to provide the maintenance of the shelter. The existing bus stop adjacent to Veteran’s Park, which is identified by a bus stop sign that was installed by NJ Transit, is not a designated bus stop in the township’s bus stop ordinance. In 2007, Sinnaeve wrote to Mahwah Township Administrator Brian Campion reiterating the opposition he expressed in 2003 to the installation of a bus shelter at Veteran’s Park between the intersections of Miller Road and East Ramapo Avenue. He described that location as “extremely problematic” because it would create a bottleneck with vehicles being stopped behind a bus and blocking the intersection. Sinneave advised at the time that NJ Transit had moved the bus stop to the Veteran’s Park location in 1997, but his opinion remained unchanged that the site is unsuitable for a bus stop because the dimensions are not adequate and do not meet the minimum required by the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Sinnaeve recommended, instead, that a bus shelter be located at the northwest corner of the intersection. That recommendation has now been echoed by the township engineer. In addition to proceeding with the effort to locate a bus shelter at the Miller Road and Franklin Turnpike intersection, Councilwoman Lisa DiGiulio asked Kelly to investigate the possibility of locating a bus shelter in front of the Kingsbridge Diner farther north on Franklin Turnpike, and Kelly agreed to do so. Prendergast named national Semiﬁnalist Katherine Prendergast of Mahwah was recently named as a Semifinalist in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship program. She is a senior at Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest. Officials of the National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced the names of approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors now have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, to be offered next spring. More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, which represents less than one percent of U.S. High School seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state. Valley Dental Group Announces A Winner! �� The Mahwah Regional Chamber Connection �� Dr. Sheila Bahadori, Orthodontist, Dr. Allen Ghorashi, General Dentist, and their team awarded Taylor Alexander a “Healthy Snack” gift basket. She guessed the right amount of sugar contained in a can of regular soda. Job well done Taylor! 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